Dong Wu

Biography

Environmental Science and Engineering aims to identify AND solve the environmental problems. This makes the practitioners like me shall always remember to stay curious and to stay practical to the world. Wu is my surname and Dong having the meaning of Winter was given by my grandfather, who named me, his first male grandchildren in the Wus' family, by the season when I was born. Yes, a very practical name and a quite pragmatic way for all y'all to remember, just like how I comprehend the spirit of my career. By the way, I would not mind you call me Donny, as long as it does not refer to that Donald of the T.

I’m Donny (Dong WU) from Shanghai, China, but I was born and grew up in the middle of China (been there for 20 years), Henan Province that is a lot like the central states of USA. I study environmental engineering from undergraduate to graduate. In the fall of 2012, I went to the UK and got my 1st honor MSc degree in Newcastle University in the northeast of England. The two-year experience in Newcastle, where I run four 10L parallel wastewater treatment bioreactors, opened research doors to me and opportunities to be an academic. Prabably due to my Supervisor's reason, I learned an accent quite North American, regards to Prof. David Graham, a respectiful and respectable Canadian, but the most of all, I was educated to respect your experiments, your lab, and your career. After the MSc program, I was recommended to East China Normal University in home country and chose to be a Ph.D. student and a teaching assistant of the environmental engineering course for undergraduates. I got my Ph.D. degree in the day of 26/04/2018, after four years' dedicated hardwork of mine to explore the Beauty and the Bacteria in wastewater treatment plants and landfills. Thanks to the devoted care and guidance from Prof. XIE Bing, now me and the rest of the world know that antibiotic resistance in our municpal solid waste is a decade-long, probably everlasting, environmental problem.

After that, I perused my academic career at HK Polytechnic University as a postdoctoral HK Research Scholar Fellow. Here I met a brilliant research team and Prof. Xiang-dong LI assigned me two tasks: 1. mainstream wastewater treatmen by ANAMMOX and 2. antibiotic resistance in air. This really encouraged, sometimes crushed, me to be reallistic guy to solve issues on site and meanwhile to conduct my research regarding the collected airborne bacteria as 'crazy' as possible. When retrospect, I appreciate this experience and value the friendship with some of the 'crzay' thinkers in PolyU, HK. Now, I joined the old School where I got my PhD. I wish I could still learn things from my colleagues, some of whom I called 'Professor' and 'Mentor' when I was a student. Just like a great men ever said, and here I quote, 'stay foolish, stay humble'.

Right... Apart from the job, I love basketball games, do gym regularly, a foodie as well. I am a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean (though the Dead Men Tell No Tales is a disaster), X-Men, and Breaking Bad.